Workers at Tara Mines have said they are "devastated" by the decision to temporarily close the mine resulting in the temporary layoff of 650 employees.
Michael Fitzgerald, a shop steward for the miners, said "it came as a massive shock" and criticised the manner in which the news emerged.
"We were very disappointed with the communication from the company", he said.
"Many workers heard it from the nine o'clock news last night."
Inflation was cited by the company as one of the factors that led to its decision. But Mr Fitzgerald said this affects the workers too.
"It was a shock to everyone, the price of everything has gone through the roof," he said.
"But we definitely didn't think this was going to happen.
"There's families. The cost of living is hurting everyone. It might be hurting the company but it's hurting us as well."
Mr Fitzgerald said the company could not give any guarantee about when they would be coming back to work.
"They're saying it could be weeks, it could be months, nobody knows," he said.
Meanwhile, a meeting between unions and management has ended.
John Regan of SIPTU, which represents the majority of staff there, said the union looked for engagement with the company around avoiding the "care and maintenance" arrangement that would suspend operations at the mine.
He said that unions looked to come up with proposals that would avoid lay-offs and support families and workers financially.
"We told the company we had several suggested ways of saving money and ways of changing operational issues," he said.
SIPTU said the company would now consider those proposals and they expect to engage further with the company in a matter of days.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, company boss Gunnar Nyström said meetings will take place with unions to see what supports can be put in place for employees.
He said he could not give a timeline on when the mine might reopen, but it would depend on a number of factors, including inflation and zinc prices.
The company described the zinc mine, which is Europe's largest, as a high-cost mine.
Mr Nyström said the zinc market is very volatile and prices are dropping.
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Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney said he got an indication of the decision yesterday afternoon and that stakeholders are working to make this a temporary closure.
Speaking on the same programme, he said his department has been speaking to Tara Mines for several months "repeatedly", because it was known that the company has been under pressure in terms of energy costs.
"This is very, very unwelcome news, and it really came unexpectedly," Minister Coveney said.
"I think it was very unexpected even within the company for many people working in Tara Mines, and so many others who are reliant on Tara Mines for their income and their employment, because it's not just the 650 people, of course there's about 2,000 people in and around the Navan area that are linked to Tara Mines in one way or another."
Mr Coveney said he has not yet been able to get clarification from the company about how long the closure is likely to be.
"I think the company simply don't know for now," he added.
"What they do know is that that it's going to take about a month or so to go through all of the procedures to shut down operations in the mine and to put it under what's called 'care and maintenance’.
"And so, we have a number of weeks now to work with the trade unions, to work with the company and the workers to try and be as supportive as we can and to try to get an understanding as to what's needed for the operations to reopen as quickly as possible."
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Paula McCaul, Chief Executive with Meath Chamber of Commerce, said the announcement from Tara Mines has sent shockwaves through the county and wider region.
"Everyone on the street since yesterday have their own Tara Mines stories, the overriding emotion is worry and uncertainty as to what the future might bring," she said.
Ms McCaul added that Tara Mines plays a major role in the Meath economy and the temporary closure will affect hundreds of business, particularly the hospitality and retail sector which rely heavily on local spend.
